Jim Gibbons Governor gets applause for efforts to avoid some controversial energy proposals

A controversial proposal to import coal to Nevada and turn it into jet fuel isn't the focus of Gov. Jim Gibbons' energy agenda, his energy adviser said in a recent interview.

Hatice Gecol, a chemical engineering professor tapped to head the governor's energy plans, said the main thrust of those efforts will be renewable energy, with the coal-to-liquid plan that has been widely criticized playing a remote second fiddle.

Gecol said the administration's focus will be on clean energy alternatives such as wind, geothermal and solar.

The liquefaction idea, mentioned in Gibbons' State of the State address last month, "is something we're looking into, but it will depend on feasibility," she said. "Maybe later we will shift some energy to this, but right now, currently, we are putting most of our energy towards renewables."

On Friday, Gibbons signed an executive order, the first of his administration, calling for a look at the permit process for renewables.

That was welcome news to environmental advocates, who have been sharply critical of the liquefaction idea since Gibbons floated it.

The idea of a "coal-to-liquid fuels plant in Nevada, similar to the successful plant in Wyoming," got a whole paragraph in the State of the State, compared to just a mention of renewable energy: "I applaud the action the Legislature took last session to ramp up the incentives for greater production of solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy."

Launce Rake, spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance for Nevada, said Gibbons' comments last month clearly put liquefaction front and center and alternative energy in the back seat. If that's changed, he said, it's a good thing.

PLAN is a nonprofit organization that works to ensure social justice.

"We're happy that he has seen the light in the month since he's taken office," Rake said. "It's good that he's de-emphasizing the coal liquefaction, because it's insane."

Rake and other environmentalists argue that coal-to-liquid can hardly be called successful. The plant in Wyoming is being built by a private contractor without state help and isn't scheduled to be finished until 2011. Other plants around the country are small-scale at best, and the South African operation that marked the technology's debut are too polluting to be a good model.

Gecol defended the idea, however, saying renewable energy is essential, but solar, wind and geothermal can only produce electricity, not fuel. And for Nevada's tourism-based economy to run smoothly, gasoline for automobiles and airplanes has to be readily available.

"We had in the last year quite a bit of disruption in the fuel straws" that bring gasoline to Nevada from California, she said. "This plan is about making Nevada not dependent on other states or unfriendly countries."

Gecol is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno, who took a leave of absence to work for Gibbons. Her research has focused on development of biofuels, such as the cooking-grease-powered cars being adopted at a grass-roots level.

Gecol said she is enthusiastic about technologies such as biofuels and ethanol, but neither is feasible on a large scale in Nevada given that there is only so much cooking grease and no corn or soy crops. Because gasoline will be powering cars and airplanes for the foreseeable future, liquefaction is the most promising way to lessen its environmental and economic effects, she said.

Critics point out that coal mining is bad for the Earth; that Nevada doesn't have coal, so it would have to be imported from Wyoming or elsewhere; and that existing liquefaction plants use huge amounts of water and produce large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions.

Those aren't the plants of the future, Gecol said. The Wyoming plant uses new technology to dramatically reduce the amount of water that is needed; in Nevada, sand could do much of the cooling that water is used for in the old plants, she said.

Carbon dioxide that's produced can be captured to keep it from polluting the atmosphere and worsening global warming, she said. The trapped emissions can be injected into oil wells to increase their yield, among other possibilities, she said.

"What Governor Gibbons keeps emphasizing to me is that we have to make sure this is clean," she said. "We have to make sure we're not hurting the environment by creating a diversified energy portfolio."

She pointed out that the fuel produced by liquefaction burns many times cleaner than petroleum from oil wells.

Gecol acknowledged that by relying on coal from other states, Nevada would still be dependent on outside sources for fuel. But she said a liquefaction plant would create high-tech jobs and stem Nevada's brain drain of college graduates.

But Gecol took pains to emphasize that liquefaction is on the back burner for the Gibbons administration.

"When I was offered this position, the first conversation I had with Governor Gibbons was 80 percent about renewable energy," she said. "His goal is basically to make Nevada recognizable in the region for renewable energy, even make it a national hub."

Gibbons introduced legislation in Congress updating federal regulations for geothermal energy. As a former geologist, he is particularly enthusiastic about that alternative energy source, Gecol said.

"He (Gibbons) thinks that we are ready to really encourage the industry in Nevada," she said, noting that Nevada has abundant solar and wind resources. "There are some hurdles, but we have to kind of feed it, encourage the (renewable energy) industry to come here, convert our natural products into energy."

If Gibbons is serious about putting the emphasis on incentives for the renewable energy industry, he sounds a lot like his Democratic election opponent, state Sen. Dina Titus -- and that's a good thing, Rake said.

"We think Dina Titus was very good on energy and the environment," he said. "If Jim Gibbons is following in her footsteps, that's a good thing."

Rake applauded Friday's order calling for streamlining of issuing permits, calling it "a great idea," as long as it's not a cloak for slackening regulation.

"We don't want to see polluting projects hiding in a Trojan horse of renewable energy," he cautioned.

Titus said she, too, welcomed Gibbons' apparent change of heart as long as it was backed up with action.

"I've got a bill coming that will provide more incentives to develop renewable energy," she said. "If he's serious about that, I'd love to see him support my bill. ... If it's (Gibbons' support for renewables) real, I'm very happy. If it's just a statement with nothing behind it, I'm frustrated."